Living Blues #290 (May/June 2024) features 38-year-old Hubby Jenkins on the cover. Jenkins is one of the best of the recent wave of young African American musicians doing a deep dive into pre-war blues, string band, and other roots music, and developing their own sound based on these acoustic styles. An early member of the …
Living Blues #289 features one of the greatest living soul men on the cover. William Bell released his first single for Stax back in 1961. Over the next six decades he has poured out a string of hits including winning a Grammy in 2017. We take a deep dive into the legendary vocalist’s long career. …
Living Blues #287 features Houston singer Diunna Greenleaf. Greenleaf grew up immersed in gospel music. Encouraged by the likes of Katie Webster and Teddy Reynolds, she began to sing the blues. Now, with more than 25 years in the blues, Greenleaf has become one of its strongest voices. Danva Johnson is the son of James …
Living Blues #284 (May/June 2023) features bluesman Albert White, who is among the last of the great Atlanta blues artists. His 60-plus-year career, which he kicked off as a member of one of the city’s most popular 1960s blues bands, Dr. Feelgood and the Interns, has made White a local legend. Robbin Kapsalis and Vintage …
Living Blues #282 features Chicago bluesman Jimi “Primetime” Smith. His first gig at age 13 was backing his mother, Chicago drummer Johnnie Mae Dunson’s, friend Jimmy Reed at the 1973 Ann Arbor Blues & Jazz Festival. Smith’s journey in the blues has certainly been atypical. Now, at age 63, he has absorbed all of the …
Living Blues #281 features the Soul Queen of New Orleans, Irma Thomas. It has been 26 years since Thomas has graced the cover of Living Blues. We sat down with her earlier this year and talked about her career, Katrina, and life at age 81. Chicago drummer Merle Perkins has played behind everyone from Freddie …
Living Blues #280 features the Mississippi Blues Child, Mr. Sipp. In 2013 Mr. Sipp seemed to come out of nowhere and reached the IBC finals in Memphis. But Castro Coleman was already a well-established name in the gospel scene in Mississippi; he was just rebranding himself as a blues artist. Over the past decade he …
Six with UM ties among 2022 award winners The Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters honored several University of Mississippi alumni and faculty members as part of its annual awards to accomplished individuals in various creative fields. UM alumni and faculty receiving 2022 awards from the MIAL are William Dunlap and Kenneth Holditch, recipients of the …
Living Blues #278 features bluesman Kenny “Blues Boss” Wayne on the cover. Wayne is one of the few remaining piano-playing frontmen in the blues. He talked with Living Blues earlier this year about his journey on the keyboard into, out of, and back to the blues. Iowa may not be known as a hotbed of …
Living Blues #277 features bluesman Zac Harmon on the cover. Harmon’s life has had many seasons: from his early years in Jackson, Mississippi, to his middle years as a session guitarist in California and New York, to the present days living in Texas as one of the top blues artists on the scene today. Memphis-born …